My criteria for my first read of the year usually is as follows: an author I know and love, a book I’ve been highly anticipating and something that’s easy to read. My Lady Jane easily met all three requirements, so I didn’t hesitate to dive right into it on the first of January. And, truth be told, I couldn’t have picked a better choice! Jane Grey is known in actual history to be the “nine day queen”, Edward VI’s successor for a little over a week. No one really knows what happened, and in response to the “what if” hanging in the air, authors Brodi Ashton, Cynthia Hand and Jodi Meadows worked together to tell the (not so true) (but oh so fun) tale of the Lady Jane Grey.
My Lady Jane is a book that is meant to entertain in a gloriously funny, satisfying way. The narration is excellent, complete with wry observations, witty retorts and a dash of whimsy. I was hooked right from the start! (And no, it’s not just because I find British royal history fascinating, though that was definitely another reason I enjoyed it.) I loved the tone, which made it feel like I was reading someone’s journal or hearing a storyteller tell the tale. I loved the switches between characters, because it was all too interesting to discover what was going on with each individual. I loved the humor, because it is so rare for a novel to make me laugh out loud (and I did laugh reading this one, and multiple times). I loved the magic, which was simple but still so entertaining. It was certainly all too easy to get swept up in learning what was to become of Jane, Guildford and Edward, and it was just impossible to do anything but see these three through to the end of their story.
Can you tell I was happily entertained by this tale? Because I was! The combination of magic, history and humor (with just a tiny bit of romance) was utterly irresistible. Whether you’re fascinated by actual history or a total newbie to Jane’s story, this novel is guaranteed to make you crack a smile, if not elicit fully on belly laughs. I know I enjoyed it, and I certainly think that plenty of other readers will too.
My Lady Jane by Cynthia Hand, Brodi Ashton & Jodi Meadows
Publisher: Harper Teen | Publication Date: June 7, 2016
Source: Bound manuscript borrowed from Lili (Thanks!)
Lady Jane Grey, sixteen, is about to be married to a total stranger—and caught up in an insidious plot to rob her cousin, King Edward, of his throne. But that’s the least of Jane’s problems. She’s about to become Queen of England. Like that could go wrong.
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